| Score | Comment | Date |
 | The theatre was only around a third full and there were lots of kids who may have been enjoying it, it would have been interesting to know. The script is an unfortunate mix of the banal, confused and unfunny, the staging has its moments but is generally somewhat childish, and as I left half way I cannot say whether it all led anywhere but it didn't look like it was going to. A mess. - kilburncat | 12 Feb 10 |
| THIS IS TOTAL AND UTTER TRASH. - T Jones | 14 Jan 10 |
| I'm not going to be quite as spiteful as some people who have reviewed this show, but I will say that it is a mis-conceived, and extremely loose show. To be frank it simply does not make good theatre in any way. - Jack Higgins | 06 Jan 10 |
| What on earth was this show put on for?
This was like an amateur dramatics show. Very badly staged. And the writing was rubbish. - Terence Mogan | 05 Jan 10 |
| Completely dreadful. Totally terrible. Tedious, freakishly strange. A cacophony of trash. - Tony van de Koning | 03 Jan 10 |
| RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH RUBBISH.
- Cat Tregovony | 27 Dec 09 |
| This is just plain daft from start to finish. I paid a lot of money to see this show so unlike other people reviewing here, I stayed to the end. There are zero redeeming moments in this show. It is banal, cliched and embarrassing. What were they thinking putting this tripe on?
- Joe Thomas | 27 Dec 09 |
| Weirdness and stupidity themselves. This show is so bizarre I cannot imagine anyone thinking it would be a good idea to tell this story on the stage. Plain and simple it just does not work at all. Rather a disaster actually. - GregorinTomasz | 24 Dec 09 |
| My honest advice to anyone considering this is not to go. You will be severely disappointed. This is one hell of an awful show. - Jack Collings | 24 Dec 09 |
| This sort of trash was not was I was expecting. Amazingly bad, still can't believe it. Quite astonishing. Man this is bad. - Terry Hicks | 23 Dec 09 |
| The countless people who have hated this as much as me have said everything I wanted to say, but I just wanted to add my voice to the overwhelming chorus of disapproval. This was a ghastly show from beginning to the interval when I left. - Una Rocoba | 23 Dec 09 |
| Only go if you want to have your theatrical Christmas stocking full of coal. - Abdul Johaz | 22 Dec 09 |
| Absolute balderdash! I wanted to leave after five minutes but stayed to the interval... what a fool I was.
If you have a ticket then I wish you good luck...
if you can possibly make it to the end without wanting to scream in frustration at the nonsense unfolding before your eyes then I have respect for you.
- Tim Locks | 22 Dec 09 |
| What extraordinaryily poor writing...
This show was like a GCSE drama project... and the music was so embarrassing! Full of ethnic cliches and riddled with cheap effects.
What a waste of our taxpayers cash.
Hytner certainly needs to smarten up his ideas about who he employs to do these huge Xmas shows. Might I suggest he does one himself??? - T. Hayes | 22 Dec 09 |
| Total garbage. Should never have even seen the light of day. What an utter catastrophe from beginning to end. - Tamsin Oakley | 22 Dec 09 |
| It's such a shame the critics have virtually buried this, because it's a lot better than they maintain.
The staging and design matches previous NT Christmas hits His Dark Materials, Coram Boy and War Horse. Tsunami's, shipwrecks and underwater diving are all thrillingly created in highly effective and mostly low-tech ways. The music and choreography both compliment the action. There is an excellent ensemble, led by two great young actors - Gary Carr and Emily Taaffe - whose energy and enthusiasm sweep you away. It's true that there is a problem with the story but I can't put my finger on what it is or whether it's the book or the play. However, there's much to enjoy and the number of empty seats, presumably a result of the critical bruising, is a great shame. - Gareth James | 18 Dec 09 |
| Just back from the Sat Eve perf but I can only comment on ACT 1 - I hated this dire rubbish so much I walked out at the interval - the first time in 20yrs of going to the National.
Yes a couple of the design element are good - the Tsunami/drowings and the diving scenes are effective but the rest of the act is dull as dishwater. Sitting at the back of the Olivier Circle much is lost (thankfully only paid £10 for the seats) the lighting is a series of patchy blobs and many of the lines are lost.
For a Saturday night just before CHristmas large chunks of the Olivier were empty and would judge by the other people collecting coats at the interval would have been worse for act 2.
Nice try RNT but think this is one show you should give up on and concentrate on getting back to form for next Christmas.
A truly dire show - Glen | 12 Dec 09 |
| TOTALLY ATROCIOUS. - Racquel Riz | 11 Dec 09 |
| I enjoyed this a lot. It is obviously pitched at kids but as an adult I was never bored, and the staging was at times highly dramatic and always interesting. Well worth dragging the family along to. - NR | 07 Dec 09 |
| Absoulte rubbish- best bit is I've got to write an essay on it. Fun 10 hours ahead. Don't even waste your money or your time. - BryonyMcBabs | 07 Dec 09 |
| This truly is one of the worst plays I have ever seen at the National. Someone must have been having a bad day when they commisioned this rubbish. Avoid at all costs unless you want to be bored stiff. - Ivor | 03 Dec 09 |
| A terrible terrible terrible show.
Just abismal. - Sophia Locewiski | 03 Dec 09 |
| Never again will I go to a Christmas show at the National after this disgrace. - Bex Hetty | 03 Dec 09 |
| Desperately disappointing and tedious time-waters, despite large sums of subsidised money going into its production. The two young leads from LAMDA did their best with inadequate material. - Sue Stapely | 02 Dec 09 |
| Rubbish. Completely uninspiring. Did someone say this was the National Theatre??? - Jimmy Rohan | 01 Dec 09 |
| Stupid, babyish and poor. And that was just the music. As for the play... don't get me started. - Rosie Boulton | 29 Nov 09 |
| - | An absolutely pathetic attempt to make the audience feel emotionally involved. A ridiculous and condescending piece of tripe. Hytner is losing the plot by employing these amateurs. - Jake Lecroud | 28 Nov 09 |
| UTTER AND COMPLETE RUBBISH.
WORST PLAY I CAN REMEMBER SEEING. - Rob Sliphen | 28 Nov 09 |
| so fed up with the prejudice of the suburban left being rammed down my throat every time i visit the theatre.total garbage. - andrea jones | 28 Nov 09 |
| Not bad to look at, but definitely lacking in soul. First five minutes were great, all downhill from there unfortunately. - Max de lee Monteiro | 27 Nov 09 |
| TOTALLY BORING. (Except for the set which is ravishing) Not a convinincing play at all. And what was with those awful grass skirts??? - L. Hayes | 27 Nov 09 |
| I loved this production. I thought it was well performed and the visual effects and use of water, weather, etc were all amazing. Having been a TP fan for over 20 years, I figured the book would be hard to translate onto stage, so I was expecting a lot worse. I thoroughly enjoyed it and thought it was emotional and watchable. Young kids will love it. No, it's not as good as War Horse, but still worth seeing. - Andrea | 27 Nov 09 |
| Oh dear!!! What a weird show. It just made no sense... and what was with the parrot? That was a mistake indeed... - S. Hughes | 27 Nov 09 |
| - | Saw the Press Night performance - I actually felt sorry for the critics for having to sit through this garbage. At least I could leave at the interval! - Birt van Ropuy | 26 Nov 09 |
| I adored the set - absolutely beautiful. But the playwriting was poor, and there is absolutely no comparison with something of pure genius like War Horse. A real shame, but some young kids might enjoy the spectacle. - Fatima Wobuda | 26 Nov 09 |
| For some reason the actors didn't seem to bother to project their voices in this annoying and rather frustrating show. It didn't really matter as I wasn't interested in what they were trying to say anyway. - B. Smith | 26 Nov 09 |
| DULL. DULL. DULL.
A huge waste of money on two tickets.
Wish I had not bothered. - Lydia Mackiewski | 26 Nov 09 |
| - | Boring. Long and tedious. The music is probably the worst aspect of this show - quite simply naff. - Rachel Haimes | 26 Nov 09 |
| A terrible show. Had to leave at the interval - could take it no more! The show looks beautiful but has absolutely no coherence. The poor actors have to walk around as if they are performing in an amateur show. Shame on the National for such a waste of money on this rubbish. - J Dixon | 26 Nov 09 |
| Worst show yet at NT. Melly Still rolls out the same old, same old, drowning sailors on wires, suffering baby puppets and endless, ENDLESS crap film effects. It's supposed to be a play woman! Give us a break Hytner and employ someone with more integrity and talent. I felt sorry for the poor actors and the kids in the audience...bored to tears. - Coral | 26 Nov 09 |
| @Cassox "a nerdy so-so author."?
"Pratchett not in the same league as Pullman"
Clearly you're unaware that Terry Pratchett outsells Philip Pullman by a factor of ten? And that his books have covered the gamut of topics from racism & sexism, evolution & revolution, politics & finance, gods & religion, nationalism and now nationhood?
Or maybe that's what you meant by not in the same league?
Comparing the book and the play is difficult - one is superbly visual, evoking the setting and the scene with an unlimited canvas - the imagination - while the other manages impressively to convey impressions of scene with a limited palette of props and a single set
the play is most definitely the child of the book, but I suspect that the majority of theatregoers will NOT be "Pratchett fanboys" and will not be trying to compare this work with a deep and thoughtful book - one which, incidentally, Mr Coveney you missed much of, when you only "skimmed its pages" - with what they see on stage
So any review that starts with the book in mind is short changing its readers.
The play is a thoughtful account of 'another history' where the whole Royal Family succumb to the Russian Influenza and the new heir to the throne is half a world away, searching for his daughter who was marooned on a desert island by a tsunami
This would be bad enough for any well brought up Wiltshire girl - especially one constantly reminded by her overbearing grandmama that she is 139th in line to the throne - but then she needs to care for a and survive with boy-almost-a-man who has to bury his entire family and tribe, who were drowned by the same tsunami
The two are joined by other survivors, requiring the two almost-children to learn how to lead, to make decisions, to save others from death ("Mau's heartfelt 'Will Not Happen!' can bring tears to the eyes) to build a new nation, and ultimately to save themselves and each other
Other survivors of the tsunami embody the superior Imperial mentality that is so familiar and destructive even today, and require both Mau and Daphne to become killers, and face up to the fact that despite fighting Death throughout, they are bringers of Death themselves
And then, just when the Deus Ex Machina of Daphne's father arrives, finding them the promised happy ending is snatched away, as they both have to put Nation above Self
This is not a deep and ponderous play, of hidden meanings and metaphors for critics to pour over, it is a moving human drama, aimed at entertaining a younger and less cynical audience, and despite its flaws, it hits its target dead centre - Chrisboote | 25 Nov 09 |
| (more like 3.5). Tricky. A so-so writer adapting a not that interesting book by a nerdy so-so author. Ravenhill and Pratchett are not in the same league as 'Pullman & Wright', 'Gavin & Edmonson' and 'Morpurgo & Stafford' who gave us the last three NT christmas shows. The problem with the production is that Pratchett's original book is a bit limp and tries to force young readers to 'think for themsleves' in a rather obvious way, and then Ravenhill's adaptation is overlong, still bland, but makes good use of Milton the Parrot... which is, i think, the only rather interesting extension of the book. To Ravenhill's credit this adaptation is infinitely better than the awful awful Stephen Briggs ones which Pratchett seems very fond to let him do!
However Melly Still makes a hugely enjoyable evening out of the rather bland starting point. The whole thing is rather lovely, but it does feel like a children's show, which is where Coram Boy, War Horse and Dark materials were so groundbreaking in the fact that they transcended this. The production looks expensive and feels epic, but i couldn't help but be a bit patronised and slightly offended by the 'Ooga Booga, where am dat wateemelon' simplified and mildly racist approach to the natives of the 'Nation'.
It's basically not that great, but a guilty pleasure... like Top Gun, Josie and the PussyCats or fancying Boris Johnson.
I don't think there are enough Pratchett fanboys to keep this open for a second run, but then if the NT will choose sub-par writing and writers what can you expect! Top marks to Melly Still though.
- Cassox | 24 Nov 09 |
| An attempt to carry on the tradition at the NT, now well established, for thought provoking children's productions at this time of year - think His Dark Materials and Coram Boy. However, Nation didn't quite grab me the same way that the other two did. I suspect, however, and this is the important bit, that for the youngsters at the performance I attended it did - in which case job done! Some excellent staging and better than Coram Boy drowning sequences carried me through the overlong first half. Only the NT, however, would attempt such productions and for that they should be heartily applauded. - rds | 22 Nov 09 |
